Paradigm(s) Lost? Islands of Critical Media Research in Communication Journals

Abstract

Disputes over critical theory and administrative research have marked media research community for almost eight decades, but have shed little light on the issues that separate them or potentially bind them together. A network analysis of articles as clusters of interconnected concepts published in eight prominent communication journals during the period of seventy years indicates that coexistence of critical theory and empirical social inquiry is feasible. While critical approaches remain peripheral islands in communication and media research, the majority of critical articles published during the seven decades include empirical research. There are critical islands that are specific to empirical environment, distinct from those generated in the non-empirical environment, to the EU-based journals in contrast to the US-based journals, and to different historical periods, but despite major differences, the study also reveals some significant commonalities across the dominant critical currents.

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